A/N: Hello all, welcome back! Here's the next installment of the story. Thank you for following this thus far, and voting. I do enjoy reading your feedback so do drop a word or two on how you feel about Arnav, Khushi and their story...
Happy reading!
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I remember the first time I fell in love. I held her hand in mine with not an interest to let go. I floated along lighter than I've ever felt. I kissed her hand as if she were my princess. There was a heart full of love and it was all for her. Every flower, every song, every cloud, every sunshine, every raindrop was a gift from heaven. For this angel had come to take my love. For the first time I felt love...
~~ Jason Micheal Ratliff ~~
November, 2000
Mumbai
"Are you okay?"
Khushi looked up at her friend as Lavanya rushed towards her where she had been seated on the bench at the end of the ground. She cursed her luck. High school was a place where everything goes around within seconds after the happening, the gossip mill crunching its way echoing in empty corridors, leaving very little for imagination. And a perfect place for the application of Murphy's Law. Why was the whole world conspiring against her? She sighed, trying to move her leg to see whether she had any twisted or sprained muscle. The pain subdued considerably, though she felt it shot up at the slightest movement.
"Rough day to focus on the game," Khushi said softly as she packed her belongings in her backpack. "I don't think I'm seriously injured, La." Or was this a plot for her brother, Khushi wondered mindlessly. If this was their way of seeking Rohan, as he would be coming to pick his injured sister, Khushi needed to seriously inform her brother of all the trouble she was subjected in his wake of graduation. But since the spokesperson of Club-Rohan had a smooth transition of being the head cheerleader of Club-Arnav, Khushi doubted it had nothing to do with her brother and everything with the new boy who, apparently, couldn't get the hint and leave her alone.
"I would have killed Sheetal if that's the case." Lavanya hissed rather loudly as she fixed her eyes on the girl who was now running towards the part of the field where the cricket team were packing for the day. "But still, you should have been careful, K."
Khushi smiled at her but nodded. "Yeah, I should have but I'm worried about the social paper that we have on Monday." She looked at her friend as she chewed her lower lip. "What if I couldn't manage to get the average percentage?"
"Khushi, please" Lavanya shot back, "it's bad enough you've been hit by that stupid ball just because Sheetal failed to keep her eyes off her boyfriend. Take this as an opportunity and rest well. Social isn't going to help us live our lives."
"It helps," Khushi interrupted with a sly smile, "us have a better GPA, which in deed helps us live our lives."
"I give up." Lavanya said finally. "I don't get it, K. First, you wanted to give up this subject and then, you decided to give it a try. Now, you're worried when your knee's bleeding..."
"It's not bleeding, stop being dramatic." Khushi chided her friend, cursing a certain Arnav Raizada for all her problems. Firstly, he forced her to stick up with social saying that he hated to be friends with cowards who runs away from their fears. Secondly, for having that stupid Sheetal as his girlfriend who knew nothing but throwing insults at others. Turning around, she picked her backpack. "Anyways, it's time to leave. I've so much to prepare. See you on Monday."
After much pleading and making sure she could walk back home without any help that Khushi managed to have Lavanya off her back. While her friend had threatened with all the things ranging from calling her brother to pick her up to accompanying herself, Khushi felt a tug of happiness to have such wonderful person as her friend and in future, if things work out the way it promised to be at the moment, her brother's life partner.
Smiling as the thought of Rohan and Lavanya being a couple, Khushi made her way out of the school premises and turned around the corner of the lane when she heard the one voice she had been avoiding for days now.
"Does it hurt?"
Khushi stopped dead in her tracks as she felt his footsteps nearing her. She looked up and found his eyes as easily as he did. There was no laughter in his voice nor teasing glint in his eyes that she was used to detect in the months of their acquaintance. Instead, there was genuine concern.
She stepped away, keeping as much distance between them as she could. The boy was bad news. From the time she met him on the first day, she had been blessed with nothing but restlessness and impoliteness. Her mother had caught her using words that she never used before. And her brother had asked her, more than anyone else, about the reasons for her disliking towards the boy who was nothing but polite towards everyone. The truth was, however, her brother had met Arnav thrice in the past four months, every time either in the library or at one of the faculty's cabin discussing about subjects – the best way anyone would have enrolled their names in her brother's good-book-list.
However, Khushi knew better than anyone else. He was anything but polite. He had, in all his life, visited libraries to read books that were of no use to his academics.
She rolled her eyes as she snapped. "Don't worry, Raizada. I'm not going to complain. Your girlfriend is safe."
Arnav looked at her, his eyes having that teasing glint again. "If I didn't know better, I would have thought that you are actually jealous of Sheetal." He teased, the corner of his mouth curved into that lopsided smile girls were so crazy about, "though she is not my girlfriend."
She held her hand, pointing a finger at him. "I'll never have a boyfriend who is insensitive and egoist."
She heard him chuckling lightly as he nodded. "Guess I'm lucky then."
She shook her head. "Look," she said sharply, "I'm fine. Thanks for asking. As you are being understanding soul few minutes ago, can I expect the same and take the trouble of repeating myself for the millionth time to leave me alone?"
Arnav looked at her, his eyes turning serious as they captivated hers. Immediately, Khushi felt a pang of guilt. The boy had always been overtly friendly but never had he behaved in such a way that could be termed as ill. But with him around, Khushi was not the girl she always was. She would turn to this fierce, insensitive and talkative girl who failed to think before speaking her heart out – someone Khushi failed to recognize. Whether it was a good change or bad, she was yet to decide.
She cleared her throat. "Arnav..." she called out only to be interrupted by his laughter.
"To tell you the truth," Arnav said, the careless laughter subduing into serious smile, "no puedo estarlejos de ti."
"What?" Khushi tried to understand the words.
She watched him as Arnav stepped closer. "Te amo," he whispered with a small smile.
"What the hell?" Khushi snapped back, pushing him away. "Mr. Arnav Miguel Raizada! Salazar! Whatever. How many times do I need to ask you to speak with me in a language that I can understand?"
She saw him tighten his fists and before she could speak further, Arnav stepped back, creating the distance between them that she so needed at that moment. "Jesus, look at your face, Sweetie." He said, the teasing glint back in his eyes as he shook his head with uncontrollable laughter, addressing her by the name that only her brother had the right to call her by. "Anyway, I just wanted to check whether you can walk or can I drop you home?"
It took all her self-control not to snap at the boy in front of her. "Thanks," she hissed under her breath. "I can take care of myself, Raizada." She walked past him but turned around, allowing herself ask the only thing she wished to for a while now. "You have such a weird name it often confuse me, you know. I mean, I heard your whole family calling you Miguel and it actually takes me few seconds to recognize that they are talking about you."
Arnav smiled genuinely. "You can call me Mig, you know." He offered plainly. "That's what Dad and Nicole calls me."
"Nicole?" Khushi heard herself ask; surprised that he was actually suggesting her to call him by the name his family seemed to refer him by.
"Yeah my..." he looked at her for a brief second, unsure, and then said in a low, almost inaudible voice, "half-sister. Anyway, see you tomorrow."
Khushi rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. It was Arnav she was talking with and she was hoping to have his genuine answers without any teasing or flirting when she knew it wouldn't happen in a life time. "It's Sunday." She reminded him plainly. "There's no school."
"But Anjali is going to visit your brother for some help." Arnav winked at her, "and you need my guidance for your upcoming social paper. Like it or not, I'm not going to ditch my girl when she took up the subject trusting that I'd help her with it."
"I didn't take it up for you." Khushi shouted on his back as Arnav turned around and in a small jog, dashed towards his two-wheeler. "I don't trust you, Arnav."
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Present Day
Spain
Silence stretched between them as they walked on the small pathway towards the lot. The air was filled with festive mood and tourists from all over the world were excited to spend the Christmas and the New Year in the exotic country. In the past couple of days that she had been in Spain, Khushi had been free from the emotional trauma that her relationship with Karan had been. Though she was not sure of how Arnav and her equation would be after all the years of distance, she was sure about one thing. The trip would help her get back her messed up life in order. And the short email exchanges and the couple of minutes with her best friend now promised her a trip filled with nothing but pleasant moments.
Pleasant, yes, but it was also going to be filled with memories from their shared past, hurt, and everything in between that they never got to work their way out from the mess they had created.
Khushi stole a glance to her right at her friend. He was talking over phone to someone in the language she didn't understand, irritating her just the same as it always did. He had made sure to speak in Spanish whenever she was around – wanting not to let her understand what he was confessing years ago and now, discussing about his business with the person at the other end of the conversation. And though Khushi tried to enroll herself in Spanish classes, she failed to keep up with the course after a couple of days, and her knowledge limited to greetings and a couple other simple words.
He looked down at her at the same moment, smiling sheepishly as if he could hear her thoughts. Khushi shook her head at her own stupidity, hating the man beside her for managing long-lasted feelings re-surface again in a blink. And the only thing Lavanya had asked before she left the airport rushed back in her head, with such intensity that it forced Khushi to think about the reasons behind her own actions.
Is it because it is where Arnav Singh Raizada lives?
Not for the first time since then, Khushi wondered if her reason for choosing Spain for her vacation was Arnav or if she just wanted to visit a place she once fell in love with in the way he described it!
"I had my men check out from Casa Imperial for you." He stated as he opened the passenger's door for her. "You will have your belongings ready before we reach home."
Khushi stared at him, her brows ceased in confusion. "Check out?" Her eyes widened at the implication, shocked at what he had been talking to over phone. "What the hell you mean by "check out" Arnav?"
"You can keep on hanging your mouth once you got in the car." Arnav remarked as he controlled his laughter. "I don't really want to spoil the day we met after all these years by someone with less brains capturing our photos for the evening news entitled "Salazar Jr. with his new girlfriend". Not that I mind, you know, "girlfriend" part."
Khushi couldn't help but laugh at the subtle filtration in his words. After all, he hadn't changed all that much. She waited in annoyance as she slid into the seat and then watched him walk over to driver's side. Once he dashed out of the parking lot, she arched her neck to face him with her finger pointing at him. "I was in a hope that may be, just maybe, the years of distance might turn you into a gentleman that you never were. But no. You are the same spoiled brat that I know."
Arnav looked at her for a brief second, his eyes glinting with happiness. "You haven't changed, Sweetie."
She lowered her eyes, straightening herself in the seat. Only if he knew how much she had actually changed in the past twelve years. "Where are you taking me to?" She asked the only thing that would give them something sane to discuss about, and not about their old selves or confusing new selves.
What was she hoping for anyways? That she could approach him after all these years and he would accept her hand in friendship? That he would move on from their childhood emotions and fleeting affair?
She kept her eyes on the road ahead as she heard him, his voice low, deep and yet strangely mysterious. "We're going to have lunch first. I'm famished. You've got to taste Tapas. Then, we're going to my apartment."
Khushi smiled as she looked at him. "I've tasted Tapas but I can't stay with you. I mean... I don't want to be a pain in your..."
"I'm not going to allow my girl stay anywhere else." Arnav said, his voice serious and strange that it was novel to her. "Besides, you're always a pain in my ass, love."
She looked away. Who said it was going to be easy to talk to a friend after years of separation, when the friend was your first crush, and when the friend wished for more than your friendship and mostly, when you almost gave everything up to be with him?
"Arnav," she called out, her hand reaching his arm as she whispered, "I missed you."
Arnav smiled, putting an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer. He leaned in and pressed his lips on her forehead that lingered few seconds more than polite friendliness demanded.
In that moment, Khushi realized. She was not here for her vacation or a break from life. She was here to find herself, and get her life back.
The only question was, was Arnav willing to fulfill her wish?
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